36 Hours//Birmingham

There is nothing like a quick weekend road trip to get your batteries recharged. It helps that there are multiple cool and interest cities within a half days drive of Nashville.

This fall I bought a neat book that I saw at Anthropologie called "36 Hours: 150 Weekends in the U.S. and Canada." Now, did I actually buy this book for $49.99 at Anthropologie? No, but I ordered it from Amazon later that night for less than half of that price. Cha-ching.

I digress..

Anyways, this cook gives you a detailed itinerary of 36 hours in 150 cities across the U.S. and Canada. After letting this book weigh down the living room coffee table for a few months, this January, I decided that it was time to put it to good use. Last month we took an impromptu trip to Cincinnati, Ohio. (Which I failed to blog about and will do so soon.) And this month we decided to go to Birmingham, Alabama.

Birmingham, Alabama is a short 2.5 hour drive from Murfreesboro and a pretty drive at that. It certainly doesn't hurt that the MTSU boys basketball team had a game Thursday night at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. We are an MTSU family, through and through. And this was not just any game. If we were to win this game, then we would be tied for first place in the conference- the first year we have been in Conference USA. This is big in MTSU world.

So, this seemed like the perfect location for the second "36 Hours" trip to venture to and explore a new city. The basketball game Thursday night was a hit. We had a lot of rowdy fans and our team pulled out a W- which sets the tone for a good trip.

After a little bit of research, we booked a room at the historic Hotel Highland in historic downtown Birmingham.  After what seemed like 8 hours on the phone arguing with Expedia about a coupon, we snagged the room for a reasonable price also.

World of Beer was a cool place (not local- its a chain- Boo.) to check out some local and international brews and people watch.

There is a civil rights walking tour downtown that is free and takes you by some really neat old churches. This one was my personal favorite.

This picture is completely unfiltered.

The walking tour also includes the famous 16th Street Baptist Church which is where the four girls died in the KKK bombing.

Even though I'm not much of a pork eater, we made a stop at the famous Dreamland Barbecue and Ribs. When in Rome, right?

Even though I dont have a picture here, the Sloss Blast Furnaces was certainly worth mentioning. Sloss Furnaces made pig iron for over 90 years and was the founding economics of Birmingham. At one time over 2,000 people worked in these furnaces. The furnaces are not a national landmark and free to tour. it was certainly educational and fun! Yes, those two words go together. I'm a dork.

And what is any trip without a little local antiquing?

There you have it folks : Birmingham- The poor man's Savannah. Juuust kidding.